Public Funding for Bignall Group Ltd

Bignall Lubritec supplies automatic oiling systems to manufacturers of agricultural field equipment. These systems provide chains and bearing with constant measured amounts of oil lubrication while they work. Constantly lubricated chains last up to 5 times longer. Productivity and profitability of machines with automatic oiling systems improves significantly as downtime for repairs, replacements and manual lubrication is significantly reduced. Accidents inherent with lubricating chains manually are avoided. The amount of oil delivered to each chain or bearing is governed by means of a restriction metering device. These metering devices are currently vulnerable to contamination in the agricultural environment and must be replaced regularly. Oiling systems applied to agricultural field equipment must be able to operate effectively subject to contamination from dirt, water, dust, crop and extreme weather. Currently the devices that govern the amount of oil to chains and bearings block up with contaminant and must be replaced at high cost to the end user. There is also the issue that the existing metering devices can only pass simple clean oils with no high pressure or special additives which are the feature of many universal and multipurpose oils offered on general sale. By using “incorrect” oils the metering devices become blocked and need replacing. The issue of these metering devices being so sensitive creates a sales barrier for new prospective customers and service issues and costs for existing customers. This project is to develop a serviceable device which can be cleaned and re-used and is compatible with existing automatic oiling systems. A fully developed and tested product would be introduced to existing worldwide OEM customers to secure business for the future and also to new potential customers who currently have objections due to limitations of existing methods. The market exists for a metering device that can be cleaned of contaminants.

Bignall Lubritec supplies automatic oiling systems to manufacturers of agricultural field equipment. These systems provide chains and bearing with constant lubrication while they work significantly increasing component life. The amount of oil delivered to each chain or bearing is governed by means of a restriction metering device. These metering devices are intergral to the design of oil systems and currently vulnerable to contamination in the agricultural environment and must be replaced regularly. Operator feedback is that this is unacceptable an costly. This issue creates a sales barrier for new prospective customers and service issues for existing customers. This project aim is to develop a serviceable device which can be cleaned and re-used and is compatible with existing automatic oiling systems. A fully developed and tested product would be introduced to existing worldwide OEM customers to secure business for the future and also to new potential customers who currently have objections due to limitations of existing methods. The proposed project would secure a significant number of jobs in County Durham by fending off large worldwide competiotors and we would expect to create new jobs as business expands. The project would also have a potential worldwide environmental impact by introducing the option for these total loss oil systems to use biodegradable and vegetable oils. This would avoid many hundreds of thousands of litres of petrochemical non degradable oils being introduced to crop and soil.